U.S. Pat. No. 2,927,054 discloses the condensation of certain sugars, e.g., glucose, mannose, fructose, etc., with an aldehyde or ketone to form cyclic acetals of the sugar. The mechanism apparently involves the elimination of water by union of the oxygen of the carbonyl group of the aldehyde or ketone and the hydrogen from each of two hydroxyl groups of the sugar. This condensation reaction proceeds upon heating the mixture to the boiling point of the aldehyde in the presence of an acid acetalization catalyst, conditions favoring the open chain form of the sugar. The two adjacent carbon atoms of the cyclic acetal ring are adjacent carbons of the aliphatic chain of the sugar molecule. Several of such cyclic acetal rings may be formed on the same sugar molecule, forming poly-cyclic acetals.